Samantha Rohrig – Editor

A good editor is going to catch your grammatical mistakes and help you with the mechanics of your writing; a great editor is also going to ensure that you are writing for your target audience so that your work has the greatest impact and the furthest reach.

My background in academia and my experience since becoming a professional editor in 2020 makes me particularly well suited to work with authors writing for a commercial non-fiction or academic audience. Whether you are preparing an article for submission to a scholarly journal, working on the first (or second ... or tenth) draft of your book manuscript, or putting the finishing touches on your dissertation (congrats!), I can suggest ways to improve the logic and flow of your work, help you tighten up and sharpen your arguments, and point out imprecise language and confused phrasing to ensure your meaning is clear and your claims convincing.

I have been an avid reader since I was old enough to pick up my first Dr. Seuss book, and what I love most about editing—and what first drew me to start doing this work professionally—is just how widely it allows me to read. Recently, I have worked on a variety of editing and proofreading projects in the fields of history, classics, archaeology, gender studies, psychology, health science, law, film theory, digital humanities, architecture, sport, and political science, to name just a few. While I am by no means an expert in each of these fields, I do have an expert eye for the sort of clear, logical, and engaging writing these and similar disciplines require, and I may be of particular help to you if you are looking to make the jump from a strictly academic audience to a popular one, or vice versa, or if you are hoping to engage a blend of the two.

My eye for detail and my years of experience as an academic researcher have also made me a rather fastidious fact-checker and reference editor. I am “fluent” in MLA, APA, and Chicago referencing styles and would be happy to help you whip your citations and reference lists into shape! I can also prepare your back-of-book index following accepted industry best practices and your publisher’s specific guidelines. To date, I have prepared indexes for academic and non-fiction titles published by Brill, Cambridge University Press, West Virginia University Press, and University of Toronto Press.

I am open to discussing any project, big or small. I believe that the key to any project's success is clear, friendly communication between author and editor throughout the editing process. Let's get talking!